The Kyiv City Commercial Court has recovered UAH 98.1 million from the company “Milikon” in favor of the State Enterprise “Defense Procurement Agency” (DOT) — this amount includes fines and court fees*. The company “Milikon”, registered in Ukraine, is a distributor (representative) of the Israeli company “Masada”.
Through its distributor, this Israeli company participated in the tender for the supply of bulletproof vests to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It manufactured bulletproof vests, brought them to Ukraine, but the body armours did not pass the “acceptance” of the Ministry of Defense.
Babel has already analyzed this story in detail — because the “body armours case” became part of the suspicion of Tymur Mindich.
The court held its hearings in closed session.
This is common practice in court cases of this type where DOT is a party, because the court materials indicate the numbers and addresses of military units — this is secret information.
Since the meeting was held in closed session, the motivational part of the court decision has not been made public, but the essence of the case is clear — since the text of the contract between “Millicon” and DOT is publicly available.
Initially, the bulletproof vests were supposed to undergo “acceptance” by the Ministry of Defense, but they did not. Therefore, representatives of military units did not come to collect the bulletproof vests and did not issue acceptance certificates.
If there are no acceptance certificates, the contract is considered unfulfilled. Babel expects to familiarize itself with the motivational part of the court decision as soon as it becomes available.
The “acceptance” department that did not accept the body armor is the Central Quality Control Department of the Ministry of Defense (CQCD). “Milikon” underwent “acceptance” in the spring and summer of 2025, but received two acts of non-conformity of the product.
In the first act (dated April 17, 2025), the companies pointed out the shortcomings of the stitching of the side covers (camerbands), in the second act (dated May 8, 2025), the companies pointed out that the overall size of the hard armor elements (plates) does not correspond to the standard sample by 1 mm.
The director of “Milikon” Dmytro Stetsenko briefly described his position in the case as follows.
In 2025, the Israeli company “Masada” won the tender of the State Rear Operator (now this state enterprise is called DOT). The interests of Masada were represented by the company “Milikon”. In the first step, Dmytro Stetsenko received a standard sample of a bulletproof vest from “Masada” and approved it with the relevant departments of the Ministry of Defense.
In the second step, “Masada” supplied the first batch of bulletproof vests to Ukraine. When the first batch had already arrived in Ukraine, he received clarification from CQCD (No. 220/61/85 dated 01/22/2024) that the plates should be measured without a damper lining. “Masada” was not informed of these requirements during production.
After several meetings (03.06.2025 and 07.07.2025), “Masada” was required to redo the plates. “Masada” refused to do so because it was “not given legal grounds” to replace the plates. DOT sued “Milikon” in the Commercial Court for breach of contract and ultimately won.
Since “Milicon” is owned by “Masada” (through its attorney James Brenig), it will be the company that decides what happens next. Unless it appeals, the courtʼs decision will take effect on June 25.
A month ago, Babel analyzed the “body armor case” in detail, having spoken with both sides of the dispute and an independent expert. We analyzed its technological and bureaucratic aspects in a separate text. We analyzed its political aspect in a separate podcast.
*In their news, the media previously mentioned the amount of UAH 97 million — it does not include the court fee.
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